NEWS CENTER - A petition has been launched demanding freedom for Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality co-mayor Selçuk Mızraklı, who was dismissed by the AKP-MHP government and detained.

 

Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality co-mayor Selçuk Mızraklı, who was removed from his post on 19 August 2019 and detained, was sentenced to 9 years, 4 months and 15 days in prison.

 

A petition has now been launched for Mızraklı, who is held in Kayseri Bünyan No 2 T Type Closed Prison.

 

The Mızraklı Freedom Campaign Group launched the initiative on Change.org. The campaign is called ‘Stop the Shameful Political Show Trials in Turkey’.

 

The call reads: “The sentencing of Dr Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı to 9.5 years in prison for no reason, other than his political, medical and humanitarian engagement and dedication is a clear miscarriage of justice which must be urgently addressed.  A well-respected medical doctor, Mızraklı was elected as mayor on behalf of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in the local election on 31 March 2019, after serving as an MP from the same party between June 2018 and March 2019. Mızraklı held various positions, such as the head of Diyarbakır Chamber of Medicine, in his beloved city of Diyarbakir where he has been working as a surgeon since 1991.”

 

The call also underlines that “Dr Mızraklı’s dismissal, arrest and punishment all are based on a shameful fabrication of ‘evidence’ with utter disrespect to the most basic principles of the rule of law and procedural justice. His imprisonment constitutes nothing less than an outrageous miscarriage of justice and living proof of the political nature of trials targeting the elected Kurdish co-mayors, members of parliament and local councils in particular und opposition in general.”

 

The campaign calls: on human rights defenders, academics, medical and media organizations, and all pro-democracy and human rights organizations across the globe to keep a watchful eye on the ongoing crackdown on political dissent, opposition, elected officials and members of parliament in Turkey.

On the European Union, the Council of Europe, the new American administration of President John Biden, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to take all necessary diplomatic and political actions in favor of the elected officials who have been imprisoned in Turkey on similar spurious charges.

Implore the Turkish government to immediately reinstate all mayors and other elected officials to their positions and to redress the injustices inflicted on them and their loved ones.

 

The petition can be signed at: